Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) Ajzen (1988)

The Theory of Planned Behavior is widely used to predict human behaviors in many disciplines. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, Attitude towards the target behavior, Subjective Norms about engaging in the behavior and Perceived Behavior Control influence intention. In addition, an individual's display of a certain behavior is determined by his or her intent to perform that behavior. This chapter describes the origin and history of the Theory of Planned Behavior, its purpose, its limitations and its applications in order to examine acceptance, adoption, use, and continuance of use of Information Systems and services.

Chatman's Theories of Information Behavior (1996, 1999, 2000)

Information behaviors are complex practices rooted within individual's everyday social and cultural dynamics. However, understanding the social and cultural dynamics of information seeking and use is a major challenge for many graduate students, scholars, and information practitioners. The objective of this chapter is to advance the understandings of social contexts and cultural situations in information behavior processes using Chatman's theories of information behaviors: theory of information poverty, theory of life in the round, and the theory of normative behavior. Over the past twenty years scholars have adopted Chatman's theories as a lens to illuminate understandings of information behaviors in diverse contexts and situations. This chapter synthesizes these studies. The chapter is useful for information professionals and scholars who are interested in applying social theories to examine the social and cultural dynamics of information practices in different settings.

Bates' Berrypicking Model (1989, 2002, 2005)

Bates' model integrated a biological and a socio-cultural perspective to argue that, in practice, information seeking does not follow a systematic search process but more commonly takes the form of “berry picking”, or finding information bit by bit using a range of sources. According to her theory, humans collect most of their information through passive, undirected behavior, while the remainder is generated using three types of behavior defined as monitoring, browsing and directed search. Bates argued that a process of sampling and selection that she refers to as “berry picking”, underlies most browsing and directed searches, and has evolved from traditional mating and foraging behaviors. The chapter discusses the diverse theoretical perspectives on which Bates' model is based, and its key contributions to Information Science.

Towards the General Theory of Information Asymmetry

Information imperfections of various kinds are present around us and information asymmetry is one such kind. The phrase “information imperfection” indicates information which is less than ideal for many conceivable reasons. The concept of “information asymmetry” is different, and indicates the presence of more information at one end of an informational distribution. The purpose of this chapter is not to provide a literature review of information asymmetry but to (1) build on previous work, (2) suggest a set of concepts, and (3) describe examples of information asymmetries in order to propose a framework for a general theory of information asymmetry. To this end, this chapter provides a brief overview of the concepts of information asymmetry and information imperfection. It also proposes a set of four concepts considered to be of importance in understanding information asymmetry; describes two major categories of information asymmetries; discusses different types of informational disturbances; and finally discusses the potential effects of information asymmetries.

Theory of Cognitive Constructivism

This chapter reveals the theory of cognitive constructivism that represents significant perspectives on information seeking, information retrieval and knowledge formation. Regarding theory of cognitive constructivism, the perspective of information seeking assists organizations in facilitating constructivists' instructional access to emphasize students' practical roles in knowledge management through independent information seeking and implementation. The utilization of cognitive constructivism is necessary for modern organizations that seek to serve suppliers and customers, increase business performance, strengthen competitiveness, and achieve continuous success in global business. Therefore, it is essential for modern organizations to examine their cognitive constructivism applications, develop a strategic plan to regularly check their practical advancements, and immediately respond to the cognitive constructivism needs of customers in modern organizations. Applying the theory of cognitive constructivism will favorably enhance organizational performance and reach strategic goals in the information age.

Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (1989)

This chapter reviews the literature about the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is an information systems models theory that explain how users come to accept use a technology determined. The model suggests that when users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence their decision about how and when they will use it. While TAM is one of the most influential models used in the studies of the technology acceptance and empirically proved to have high validity, it must be used to a certain extent with caution, because with the internationalization of companies, there is a growing need to understand how cultural factors can affect the ability of a multinational organization to adopt and use information technologies. This model provides a foundation for further research to understand why users accept or reject information technology and how to improve the acceptance.

Krikelas' Model of Information Seeking Behavior (1983)

Over the period of four decades plenty of information seeking behavior models have been presented by many researchers. James Krikelas (1983) was the first to develop an information seeking model derived from published Library and Information Science (LIS) literature about information needs and uncertainty. The present chapter discusses the Krikelas model, the researcher's views of the model and the empirical studies that implemented it. The Krikelas model can be reassessed considering the advances taking place in today's online environment. The internal and external source preferences which are important part of the model have taken new form. The advanced online tools and techniques can help the researcher in capturing information, organizing and eventually collaborating with others to fulfill the information giving and gathering process. Further studies are recommended to redesign the Krikelas model considering new possibilities with the addition of feedback at the end.

Dervin's Sense-Making Theory

Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology (SMM) has been frequently referred to and used as a substantive theory, particularly so in the field of Information Science. Yet, SMM was not developed as a substantive theory but rather as a philosophically informed methodological approach for attending to (and researching) human sense-making and sense-unmaking. In the field of Information Science, this “theoretical approach” has been most frequently used to explicate and study variable analytic measures categorized as information needs, seeking, and use. In its uses, SMM can be termed depending on context as theory, as well as meta-theory, methodology, and method. All of these perspectives are relevant to the purposes of this chapter - to position SMM within the Information Science field in terms of its historical origins and to describe how it's positioning as meta-theory, methodology, and method has had applications to the study of information needs, seeking, and use, and to substantive theorizing.

Rogers' Innovation Diffusion Theory (1962, 1995)

This chapter presents an overview of a key overarching theory of adoption of innovations, Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory. A complex yet coherent set of concepts and models comprise the overall theory, which is summarized by the definition established by Rogers (2003): “the process by which (1) an innovation (2) is communicated through certain channels (3) over time (4) among the members of a social system” (p. 11, emphasis in the original). First, a brief background on Everett Rogers is provided, then a history of the development of the theory basis is presented. Next, the four core components of the theory, as well as the strengths and limitations of the theory are discussed. Finally, the relation between the diffusion of innovations theory and other technology adoption theories, specifically TAM and UTAUT are briefly described, with areas for possible further expansion identified.

Activity Theory

The current chapter focuses on activity theory. The idea of activity theory is that the activity is a minimal meaningful context to understand human behavior. This theory, in short, highlights the relationship between an individual (subject) and an object of doing to achieve an outcome. This relationship between the subject and the object is impacted by the context (environment) and elements that were created during the development of an activity. The environment contains rules and organizations. Activity theory went through developmental stages, which are discussed in this chapter. The chapter provides definitions, introductions, background, and overview about the activity theory. In addition, this chapter presents the structure of activity theory. Examples are given. Importantly, the empirical use of the activity theory is presented and different research articles are discussed. Limitations and future research are discussed.